Halifax

Lobster Dinner!

People from the Maritimes have a reputation for friendliness.   I guess a good example is what happened in Newfoundland right after 911.  I am here to tell you that this reputation is well deserved! I was riding along between Saint John and Moncton when I saw something red off the side of the road.  I was riding in my own little headspace and it took a few minutes for it to register.  Oh, my gosh, that could be someone injured on the side of the road or something equally macabre!  I stopped and walked my bike back the 20 meters or so to have a better look.   It turned out to be just a piece of red cloth that had likely blown off of someone’s moving truck, so I got back on my bike.  I looked up the road and there was a car backing furiously down the shoulder toward me.  Two guys hopped out and one of the men said, “Are you ok?  I am a bike mechanic, I could help you fix your bike!”  Contrast that to the incident a few years ago when a group of us were riding to Calgary and Bob fell and broke his shoulder and 16 vehicles went by before a couple of Newfies stopped and drove him to hospital.

The bike-mechanic, whose name was Dana, and his friend Peter, chatted with me for quite a while.  Dana had ridden across Canada a few years ago.  Has everyone ridden across Canada?

Everywhere we have been in the Maritimes the people have been warm, friendly and accommodating.  Maybe it is the diet of lobster.  The diet on the west coast is beef and crab… 

On the map there was a scenic road called the Fundy Scenic route from Saint John to Moncton so we decided to head that way.  50 km of teeth-rattling road with nothing to see but a few farms, lots of trees and fog.  Not a fun day after all.  Strangely I was happy to get back on the smooth, wide shouldered main road even though there were large trucks.

In Moncton we went to watch the Tidal Bore come up the Petitcodiac River.  A wild pig running up the river before the tide!  Wow!  The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world so when the tide comes in it pushes up the riverbed raising a wave before it.  No pigs and no tedious conversations, just water.

The Tidal Bore (Yawn)

We have made it to Halifax.  Lobster again.  Sigh.  Telen is looking for mussels as well.  I have been wandering around flexing and posing but apparently mine are not good enough for her?  Geeze!

Halifax Waterfront

Telen on Halifax Waterfront

I guess we have crossed the continent but we are not done yet.  In a few days we will arrive in Charlottetown and begin 5 days of actually riding together.  I think Telen has been relishing the time I have been on the bike because she gets away from my crankiness.  On PEI she is going to be with me 24/7.  I just hope the werewolfiness we discovered on Manitoulin Island will be held in check.  Mind you, that lupine side may have surfaced because of the great rip-off of Gordon’s Park, where we stayed.  Nevertheless I am going to eat lots of garlic… or is that for vampires?  Maybe I should just eat lots of lobster and hope for the best.

Wait a minute, she loves lobster…